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8 January 2016 at 12:13pm

Woman who lied about being attacked for wearing a hijab fined

The woman was wearing a headscarf like the one pictured Credit: PA

A woman who claimed she was subjected to a racist assault – telling the police and media she’d been targeted for wearing a hijab – has been fined for wasting police time after CCTV enquiries showed she made up the attack.

The 18-year-old reported being set upon by a man in New Street, near the Odeon cinema, at 7.30am on 23 November and punched in the face.

She suggested the assault was racially-motivated – triggered by the fact she wears a traditional Muslim head scarf – and that the incident left her afraid of walking alone in central Birmingham.

Detectives trawled CCTV footage in and around New Street and accompanied the teenager on a walk through the city centre to help her pinpoint the offence location. But after monitoring her movements they could find no evidence of the alleged attack.

She was handed a £90 fixed penalty ticket for wasting police time.

The footage shows her walking normally along New Street and at no stage does she appear in distress or seen reacting to anything...there is no evidence she was physically assaulted and she was given a penalty notice for wasting police time.

Hate crimes are taken very seriously: Birmingham is a multicultural city and everyone should be free to go about their lives without fear of being verbally or physically abused simply because of who they are."